1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a device for taking up tapes, such as an ink ribbon used in a printer or the like or a magnetic tape for recording sounds or images, of various widths where the tapes are incorporated in a detachable cartridge.
2. Description of Related Art
The applicant of the invention has proposed, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,927,278 and 4,966,476, a cartridge used in a tape writer for making a label tape or the like for label display. The cartridge is detachably disposed in a printer, e.g., in a tape writer, where an arbitrary character or symbol is input to be printed on a print tape, such as a transparent film made of a synthetic resin, by a print unit of the printer while being drawn out of the cartridge.
The cartridge consists of a case unit and a cover both made of a synthetic resin. Inside the case unit are housed a winding container for a print tape, a winding container and taking-up unit for an ink ribbon, and a winding container for a double-sided adhesive tape with a peelable sheet stuck onto one side thereof. The ink ribbon and the print tape are drawn out of a feed outlet discharging portion formed in the cartridge with an inked surface of the ink ribbon and the inner surface of the print tape mating with each other. The ink ribbon is fed to face a print head while being held together with the print tape between a rotatable platen and the stationary thermal printhead disposed in the vicinity of a feed outlet. Ink is printed on the inner surface of the print tape, as a mirror image, on the basis of the pattern of a character, or characters, which has been input through the print unit of the printer.
The printed ink ribbon is drawn again into the cartridge, downstream in a feed direction of the print unit, to be taken up by the taking-up unit.
Meanwhile, an exposed adhesive surface on one side of the double-sided adhesive tape is adhered to the print tape in such a manner as to be adhered to the inked surface downstream of the print unit in the feed direction and the tape is drawn out of the tape writer and cut off.
It is necessary to change the width of the print tape according to the size of the object to which the tape is to be mounted or the size of the character(s) to be printed, thus requiring wide and narrow ink ribbons accordingly. The tape and ink ribbon need be contained in a cartridge of a width larger than that of the tape and ink ribbon. The taking-up unit of the ink ribbon must take up the ink ribbon by applying a torque according to the width of the ribbon.
However, the torque generated in the conventional taking-up unit is constant. In the case where the cartridge incorporating a narrow ink ribbon is disposed in the taking-up unit that generates torque suitable for a wide ink ribbon, the narrow ink ribbon is easily broken. On the other hand, if the cartridge incorporating a wide ink ribbon is disposed in the taking-up unit that generates a torque suitable for a narrow ink ribbon, the wide ink ribbon cannot be taken up due to the lack of torque.